Crusher for haw sugar in bags



Sept. 24, 1929. w. H. HOODL ESS 1,728,959 I I v CRUSHER FOR RAW SUGAR IN BAGS Fina Dec. 5, 1,927

INVENTOR. WTIImmJL Hood/ Y BY MM AM A TTORNEY 3 Patented Sept, 24, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CRUSHER FOB RAW SUGAR IN BAGS Application filed December 5, 1927. Serial No. 237,966.

The present device is intended to crush raw sugar that has solidified in bags. It operates as the bags containing the raw sugar are in transportation to the bins. The raw sugar coming to the refineries situated along the seaboard or otherwise in places inaccessible to water transportation from the tropics, is shipped in bags containing 250 lbs. and upward of raw sugar each, dis charged and weighed and usually also sampled while in the bags and, by modern practice conveyed by a belt conveyor to a place of discharge Where the bags are held mouth downward over a chute leading to raw sugar bins. These bags frequently arrive at the port of discharge with the raw sugar so solidified by freezing or other cause, that the sugar will not flow out from them when held mouth downward over the chute. The present device crushes the solidified sugar while in the bags, as it is carried by the belt, suificiently to cause it to flow readily from the inverted bag, without injuring most of the bags passing through the device.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the device and a portion of the belt that carries the bags. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the device the belt appearing in cross-section. Fig. 3 is an elevation showing the device looking from the side toward the belt. Fig. 4 is a view of the standard and carriage with the end plate and screw removed.

The two crusher rollers 1, 1, are positively driven at a rate that causes their circumferences to travel at substantially the speed of the belt or a trifle faster preferably so as to avoid crowding the sugar toward the end of the bag. They are mounted in bearings 2, that are adjustable toward and away from the belt, and have means for securing them in positions suitable for crushing the solidified sugar, and they are placed opposite each other so that the sugar will be crushed be tween them. The circumferential surface of the crusher rollers may be smooth, or may be slightly roughened to enable it to take hold of the bags, but must not be such as will cut or tear the bags as these are used repeatedly.

The best embodiment of my device of which I am at present aware I will now doscr1be:-T place at the sides of the belt 4 a pair of standards, 5, each carrying a track, 7, n which travels the carriage 8, that has bearings, 2, for the shaft, 9, of the roller, 1. The standard, 5, is provided with means such as the screw, 12, for moving the carriage, 8, along the track, 7. The shaft, 9, has a sprocket pulley, 10, which is driven by the chain, 11, that is driven at a speed that will cause .the circumference of the crusher rollers to travel at a speed substantially equal to the speed of the travel of the belt. Preferably this chain is driven directly or inclirectly from the belt driving mechanism.

The chain 11, may extend very convenently to the sprocket drive ulley, 20, that 1s mounted on the drive shat 21, that also carries a bevel gear, 24, meshing with a bevel gear, 25, on the shaft, 26, carrying the drum, 28, over which the belt, 4, passes. This shaft drlven by an electric motor, 22, and the relative diameters of the drive pulley, 2G, and the driven sprocket pulley, 10, and the crushers, 11, will be such that the circumferentlal speed of the crushers will be equal to the rate of the travel of the belt, 4.

The bags are always somewhat flattened when they arrive at the refinery, and lie on the belt lengthwise, and with a flattened side upon the belt. The pressure exerted upon them by the crusher rollers, 1, will not burst the bag unless the sugar is crowded toward one end of the bag. This crowding is avoided by making the crusher rollers, 1, travel as fast as or preferably a little faster than the Y speed of the belt, or by roughcning slightly the circumference of the rollers. The crushmg need not be deep. If the sugar is not too hard the driving mechanism on one roller may be dispensed with and it-may be made to rotate by the rotation of the other roller transmitted throu h the bag.

A number of c anges in the mechanism can be made without departing from my invention the essentials of which are the use of the crushing rollers placed on the opposite sides of the belt, and opposite each other and being adjustable toward and away from each other and being positively driven at a.

speed equalling or exceeding in a small degree the belt speed, and having a circumferential surface that will not cut or tear the sugar bags.

I claim 1. In combination with a conveyor for bags of raw sugar, of the belt conveyor type, a pair of crusher rollers laced opposite each other at the sides of t e belt, and having their axes of revolution vertical, positive driving mechanism driving the same at a circumferential speed substantially equal to the speed of travel of the belt, bearings in which said rollers are rotativel mounted, and mechanism for varying and fixing the distance between said rollers.

2. The device as defined in claim 1 with the following additional limitation; the circumferential surface of the rollers being roughened sufliciently to enable them to grasp the bags, but without sharp edges and without grooves suflicient-ly deep to cause the rollers to tear the bags.

WILLIAM H. HOODLESS. 

